Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Groceries, Rain and Mary Joyce

 Oh the bliss of this glorious thought, Roy loves to grocery shop. I am so happy to afford that privilege to him. Beginning in 2008 after all the heart stuff started, he did the shopping for us because for many, many months, I had no stamina. He liked doing it, nay I say, he loved doing the shopping. He is always so good to look for new things to try and even this morning, he brought home a strawberry muffin mix he thought I might like. He had been at a meeting Saturday morning with a group that assembles together at a grocery store. His friend teased him saying, your wife has you grocery shopping? Roy responded, let me get a cart. Roy was getting his Pepsi Zeros and he has been on the lookout for Biscuit Head biscuit mix. He talked to a manager and maybe soon he will be able to buy said biscuit mix that is advertised but not found in the store. 

I don't know if I have ever taught Mark 15. This past week while studying and knowing the difficulty of talking about the whole Pilate thing, with the religious leaders thing, soldier thing and the scattering of the disciples thing, I prayed a lot. Don't think I had ever noticed the translation of My God, my God, why have you forsaken me using abandoned me. Forsaken, not a word that touches me but abandon...well, that word ignites inside of me. And there it was, what the Lord led me to teach, not the excruciating physical pain of the cross but the emotions and knowledge of being abandoned by friends, strangers, those who should know better and could help, and even the women, who saw the death, burial and resurrection but sat there at a discreet distance, without hope and not understanding the resurrection. Of course His Father, as He was carrying all the weight of sin and the separation that it causes. The soldiers our of boredom in a mundane day to them, played the ancient game Kings, a board game, but used Jesus as a game piece, like the thimble in Monopoly. The sponge offered to Him on the cross...sponges were used as toilet paper back then. All this but I read a sentence from Barclays, "This is why He can understand our situation so well. That is why we need to never dear to go to Him when sin cuts us off from God. Because He has gone through it, he can help others who are going through it. There is not depth of human experience which Christ has not plumbed."

Yesterday in church, being in Acts 18, reading about Apollos, the pastor mentioned the enthusiasm or fervor that Apollos was known for in his preaching. The word fervor...in my addled ADD brain, I started thinking of blog post titles like Fervor in the Foyer, Victory in the Vestibule, Woohoo Welcome Center, Noise in the Narthex...well, you get the picture.  

I read Ann Lamott opinion in the Washington Post, only because she has the pay wall rescinded. She and I are the same age and her piece on being that age verses what we thought we knew at 33 is quite interesting. She made me think through a couple of things that should be bothering me now but they don't. Not because I have matured, well maybe, but mostly due to the fact, it is not that important to me and I need energy for other things, like gardening and such. 

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We are trying to act all normal this morning as not to tip off Willie that a Vet appointment is today. This morning in fact. He is asleep on the top of the cat tower which is much easier to get to than say under the bed. All the bedroom doors are shut upstairs to alleviate potential hiding spots. That entices GMoey and Mr Mo cause you know cats and closed doors, they want to go in and out a million times because the door is closed. ***Update*** Willie is in the carrier. I decided to go ahead and get it done cause two of us coming toward him would set off his cat Spidey sense. Willie, with the exception of play, keeps to himself mostly. He has started sitting next to us and wanting pets on his head a little more. Meanwhile GMoey is in my lap right now and has been sitting in my lap while I read in the afternoons. 

Much needed rain is covering most of the mountains this morning and hopefully that helps with the wildfires. 

JJill has not heavily invested in Christmas party clothes this year. Last year those styles dominated their winter catalogue. I told Roy at the time, this stuff will be on sale quickly cause it didn't seem like there was that much party stuff needed. Of course I live in a rural area and that is not to say we don't dress up, we do, but it isn't so much a requirement. 

My Advent and Epiphany book came yesterday, Radiant Birth. I'm excited to use it this year. The devos are done by different authors, many of them my favorite like Madeline L'Engle.  

My neighbor Mary Joyce passed away last week. She was 88 years old. When we first moved here she was glad we weren't loud young people. She loved the Feral Fam and also helped take care of them. I remember when she told me about finding Big Sissy Daddy and burying him. He was a kind cat and she was a kind friend to do that. We exchanged flower seeds as we both liked flowers. She loved that we had done with the side flowerbed and I was able to share with her the story of my grandmother and her best friend Ruthie, which has always inspired our side flowerbed. Mary Joyce reminded me of my grandmother. She didn't drive, she did her Toni treatment to her hair and once when she found some old hair dye, she decided not to waste it. She was a beautiful auburn headed lady for several months. Kind of shocked me cause she had silver white hair. When Mike the Mower Man didn't get here soon enough to her timing, she'd pull out an old push mower, just powered by Mary Joyce and cut her side yard. The past few years dementia took Mary Joyce away from us mentally. She would have loud conversations with all kinds of people who were mainly there to steal her money. Her daughter and husband live above her, a little ways up our hill. She would tell her daughter she heard people having s&x in the yard all night. I think it could have been the Feral Fam. I'll miss Mary Joyce this spring when it is time to emerge from staying inside. 

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